Thank you so much for all the reviews on the last chapter. Over 500! You guys really know how to make me giddy! I love you all! *smooches and hugs* SO...in honor of that (and because I get antsy sitting on chapters for longer than a day or two) I'm going to go ahead and post this chapter. Thursday will probably be the posting of both the final chapter and the epilogue.

Sunlight warmed his body, and a smile crept onto his lips. The sound of water lapping against a shore filtered in through the open window. It was filled with the fragrance of sea salt and flowers. In all his life, he'd never come back from the grave in such a luxurious manner. The bed beneath him was a comfortable cacoon. The only thing that was missing was the body of the woman he loved sleeping beside him.

He'd dreamt about her...about making love and a real life with her. Together with the boys he'd grown to love...in a house that was fresh and new. Leon tried to hold onto the dream, but it floated away from him before he could capture anything other than the feeling it left him.

"About time you woke up."

Leon cracked an eye open, and his smile turned into a scowl. "If I had know it would be your ugly face I was waking up to, I would have stayed asleep."

Percival laughed and moved closer to the bed. He helped Leon sit up, and held out a cup for his friend to drink out of.

"What happened?"

"You killed yourself...again. Did quite a number on yourself this time." Percival sat back down and smiled. During the time he'd spent with Leon, he'd listened to Leon's stories of death. Most were shared in funny anecdotes amongst the tales of the ancient knight's life. Seeing it first hand had been a rather traumatic experience for the sixth-century man.

Like with everything that had been thrown his way, Percival was dealing with it calmly. "I really thought you..." He shook the image away. "You tossed me the sword, then..."

Leon nodded, remembering the sensation of plummeting downward. Fire ripped at his flesh and clothes. Faces swarmed around him like demons in hell. Then, nothing but the dreams until he woke up. "What happened?"

"Aithusa saved you." Percival took a breath as he began relating the events that had happened after his friend fell. Arthur had managed to hold onto the sword as the weapon was activated, keeping the crystal in place long enough for the Ori to have been destroyed.

Sebryn had been injured badly, and many other Furling people had been killed in the battles that had taken place in the tower and in the air above Celestis. But, they had survived and were able to call the day a victory.

"We met up with Gwaine and Merlin outside in the streets. Gwaine had to practically drag Merlin kicking and screaming out of the lower levels as the tower collapsed."

"Did they save Aithusa?"

Percival tipped his head back and forth. "Sort of. After the Ori were killed, Adria showed up and...Merlin says that Gwaine saved the day by blowing the place to hell. Aithusa went after Adria herself and flew into the chasm.

"We were just about ready to beam out, when out of nowhere she comes flying in with your body. Your body was bad. I didn't think you'd recover."

Leon had to chuckle. He'd heard similar words throughout his entire existence. "I always do and always will."

"You sound sad about that." Percival observed. He would have thought it was a good thing that Leon survived, since the ancient man had so much to live for.

"Yes, and no. I'm happy to be alive and will be even happier once we get home."

"But...?"

"...But, there's nothing that can be done to stop it. I dread the thought of watching Elaine growing old, and the boys growing up, while I'm still...this. I don't think I could be like Merlin and let go of it."

Percival eyed Leon curiously as the other man began to briefly explain the situation with the Cup of Life.

"Damn. So, no matter what, you're stuck?"

Leon nodded mutely.

"We'll figure out something, my friend."

"Yeah...maybe. How is Merlin doing? Now that he's found his dragon and his people."

Shrugging, Percival made a noncommittal sound. "I suppose he's alright. We're all anxious to get home, but he and Aithusa are having some issues about that."

"What do you mean?"

Percival simply shrugged again.

"You would have me return to a place where I am alone, just so you could be with a human who will die in less than a century? I have suffered so much because of the neglect that was forced upon me by so many...yourself included. If you order me to return with you, I will obey, but know that I will not do so willingly."

"If we are not together, we will still be in pain. Both of us would suffer." Merlin explained again, even though they both already knew it. "However, I can't just abandon Martha!"

"You abandoned me when I was a baby." Her tone held no malice. It was a simple matter-of-fact statement.

"I was practically a child myself! I was never taught how to be a Dragon Lord! I never knew any of this!" He ranted, and threw his hands in the air.

"Nor did I. I do not blame you for that. Kilgharrah and your father are the ones who truly failed us both. Now that we are finally in a position to understand and to heal one another...you want to take me back to a place where I will be alone. A place where I would have to hide for the rest of my existence. Haven't I been hidden away long enough? Please, Merlin...do not order me to leave this place."

"You wouldn't have to hide on the Nox homeworld. They have offered you sanctuary..."

"...And yet, there are still no other drakkons. None of our kind live there. You would much rather be a human still, than embrace the fact there are people like us. Bring her here if you must, but don't ask me to leave."

"I'm sorry. I wish..." Tears fell freely from his eyes and he collapsed into a cross-legged position on the ground next to her head.

"I wish there was a way they could be free of each other and not forced into this choice." Arthur contemplated thoughtfully in a whispered breath from a nearby bench.

It had been nearly a month since the Ori had been defeated. The Asgard ship had taken heavy losses and been damaged almost beyond hope during the battle. It currently sat at the docking station that orbited a nearby moon - the repairs nearly completed. Once it was ready, it would take another two weeks to make it back to the Milky Way.

Almost two months would have passed by the time the men from Earth made it back home. Arthur was the most anxious to return. He'd had enough of sitting around. The Orici was still out there, but he was of the opinion that she was no longer the problem of him or his men. Morgana was dead. Even Aithusa agreed that there was nothing left of her mistress inside Adria.

The Asgard had contacted their brethren and discovered that even without the Ori, the followers were still wreaking havoc and spouting words of Origin. It seemed that Adria's Ascension had immediately filled the rift that the Ori would have left.

He missed Guinevere and their children, but he refused to leave without his friends. Leon had only awoken that morning. He was still groggy from his recovery, which led to him finally telling his friends about Heimdall's information on the Cup. Unfortunately, the Furlings of this galaxy couldn't offer him any more help than the Asgard of the Milky Way.

Merlin and Aithusa were still healing themselves. Both were benefiting and thriving from finally coming to terms with the bond they shared, under the watchful eyes of the other Furlings.

He watched the two of them conversing in the garden, and wondered what would have happened if he had been more accepting of magic back in Camelot, or if Merlin had spoken out about his true feelings on the issue. Shoving aside that train of thought, Arthur knew they would have all been dead by now if they had. Guinevere's second pregnancy with Igraine would have ended in tragedy if not for the modern medicine.

The Plague would still have come upon Camelot and taken many of his subjects. Leon and Merlin would have been alone, wandering the world or the galaxy...hurting and broken. Perhaps some things would have been different, but Laney and her boys would have been alone, without her brother having been able to return home and somehow draw them all together.

Home was no longer a castle filled with servants and the pressures of running a kingdom, but it was better. The simple, yet elegant, estate that Merlin had built over the years was more than enough for the former king and he longed to see it once more. He knew Merlin and the others felt the same.

"How are they, today?" Gilgamesh asked, coming alongside Arthur and motioning toward Merlin and Aithusa.

"Still at an impasse."

The leader of the Furling people nodded thoughtfully. "It is a difficult situation for both of them."

"Martha's family is on Earth, and I doubt she would want to completely abandon them to come here, though I know she would do it to be with Merlin. But, Merlin...he's spent so many centuries making a life for himself there. Guinevere and I would join them, as my place is with Merlin. Someone needs to remind him to not be an idiot, and we aren't as attached to that world as they are."

Gilgamesh gave Arthur an encouraging pat on his shoulder. "I have been speaking with the council, and with our scientists. We had hoped that the two of them could find common ground before we spoke up. There is way to remedy this situation, but it can be extremely dangerous even under the best of circumstances."

Merlin looked up at the two men. He'd noticed when the leader of the Furlings had entered the garden and had quickly tried to mask his emotional turmoil.

"What is this way, Gilgamesh?" Merlin asked, not wanting to get his hopes up.

"You can sever your bond."

"That would kill us both because of the genetic mutations." It was something that he and Aithusa had already contemplated among many other possible solutions, each of which had fallen short of actually being plausible.

"Yes. In your own galaxy, it would have." Gilgamesh laughed at their naiveté. "Do you think you are the first pair to have issues of trust?"

Merlin glanced at Aithusa. He felt reluctant to separate from her, now that they had finally begun to realize how deep of a bond they shared. He sensed the same reluctance from her, but also a spark of hope. "How, then?"

"The simplest way is to gift the bond to a son or daughter."

"I thought it was a male gene?"

"Once again, perhaps in your own galaxy."

"My children died centuries ago, and my new wife hasn't even given birth yet." Merlin shook his head. He doubted if he would be willing to push off the burden on any child.

"Did your previous children have any offspring?"

"Yes." The dark-haired man said suspiciously.

"Any child from your line has the possibility of carrying the dormant gene. We have the ability to isolate it and activate it. Then, we would have to ascertain if the genes are even compatible with the drakkon. It would be difficult, as I said before, but it can be done."

The snorted half-chuckle of Gwaine announced the man's presence into the garden. "Sounds kind of like an organ transplant."

Merlin turned around and saw his friend coming onto the lawn.

Sebryn was with him, using the man as a crutch. Like everyone else, she was recovering slowly from the ordeal. "That would probably be a fairly accurate description, from what I've read of the process."

Merlin noticed the determined look in his friend's eye. "No, Gwaine."

"Yes, Merlin."

"I can't ask..."

"You aren't. I'm offering. What do you think, Aithusa? Think you could put up with a devilishly handsome, former knight and Marine?"

Aithusa raised her head and stared at Gwaine. "I remember you from Ismere. You are the one whom the Diamair spoke to?" Not for the first time had the man managed to completely confound the fifteen-centuries-old dragon. "How can you be this one's descendant if you were there...and older than he was?"

Gwaine just grinned, "That didn't sound like a no."

"What about your sister, and Carolyn?" Arthur asked, forcing a smile and tipping his head at Sebryn.

"I told Sebryn about all that." Gwaine said, waving off the concern. "I left Carolyn a message before we came. I just had a gut feeling I wouldn't make it back. Even if I did, I don't think we would have lasted much longer. She'd been hinting at a new job possibility, anyway that would take her off-world. Some majorly classified project."

Merlin cringed, "I hope it wasn't that Icarus project thing. I'd received a couple of emails trying to entice me into joining it for the IOA, since I had been interested in the Atlantis Expedition. I hope she turns them down. Something is not right about that whole thing."

He nodded in agreement. "Anything named after a Greek tragedy should be outlawed. As far as 'Lane goes...Well...she's my sister. She'll bitch about it for a while, but she gets me. Not like we couldn't find a way to come visit at some point, right?"

Sebryn leaned in closer to him and smiled in agreement.

Merlin hid his smirk as he turned back to Gilgamesh and noticed the man bristling slightly. "If this happens, Aithusa will be bonded to Gwaine. It would allow her to live, but what would happen to me?"

"If you survive the process, your lifespan would return to the point where it normally would have been, had you not found a drakkon to bond with. It would be longer than the humans around you and you will eventually succumb to the effects of ageing."

"Would I still have my magic?"

"More than likely, as it is an inherited trait from your line as a result of the joining with the race you call the Nox, and you still have Furling blood."

Mentally, Merlin sent a question to Aithusa. "What do you think? I don't know if I'd be willing to put up with Gwaine for that long. So, the choice is yours."

Aithusa stared at the scruffy-looking man. She was well aware of how he had been the one to hear her voice and find a way to free her from the Ori.

Their history together didn't have the animosity of centuries hanging over them. Although, she knew that he didn't care for Morgana, the reasoning was something she could understand.

Her mistress was gone, though; completely replaced by the Orici. Aithusa wondered if perhaps she had already spent too much time lamenting her lost companion.

Bringing her nose close to him, Aithusa inhaled deeply, trying to get a sense of the future. Her large, blue eyes shifted between Gwaine and the Furling woman next to him. Nothing was clear to her, but she did get a sense of a great future between the two.

Sebryn had become a friend to her in the days following the battle. She was among the first to welcome Aithusa into the new life with her own kind.

"What? Trying to see if you're allergic to me or something? I swear if you sneeze on me, I'm going to be pissed." Gwaine warned the dragon with a tap on the snout.

The dragon chuckled and shook her head. Gwaine confused her with his odd sense of humor, but if he was willing to stay in this foreign place so that she might be with her own kind, she couldn't see a reason to not accept the possibility.

"Very well. Let us find out more about this process. I believe it would be in the best interests for all of us."